On October 3, 1990, just a year after the Berlin Wall fell, the German
Democratic Republic was absorbed into the Federal Republic of Germany,
officially ceasing to exist. What was the GDR and how do we remember
it? According to the dominant Western narrative, it was a country that
brought neither unity nor justice nor freedom to its citizens. But if
so, why does a virtual wall still seem to exist in Germany today
between the erstwhile citizens of the GDR and FRG? The GDR very much
remains in the public debate, and while political integration is well
on its way, the cultural integration of the two former states has
proven much more challenging.
This volume analyzes the culturaltransformation - or lack thereof -
that has followed political unification. The contributions are
interdisciplinary: essays on history and politics provide a framework
and others on art, film, literature, museums, music, and education
provide specific examples. These case studies allow us to examine the
state of unification beyond statistics, opinion polls, and glib
generalizations. The volume, then, is a reassessment of the journey
Germans in East and West have taken during the past two and a half
decades. Even today, it is an open-ended, unfinished journey. But such
journeys tend to be the most interesting.
Contributors: Kerstin Barndt, Stephen Brockmann, Michael Dreyer,
Andreas Eis, April A. Eisman, Peter Hayes, Franziska Lys, Charles S.
Maier, Andreas Niederberger, Mary-Elizabeth O'Brien, Daniel
Ortuno-Stühring.
Franziska Lys is Professor of German at Northwestern University.
Michael Dreyer is Professor in the Institute for Political Science at
the University of Jena.
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Political Unification and Cultural Difference in Contemporary Germany
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781787441682
Publisert
2020
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Ingram Publisher Services UK- Academic
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter